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T
he
Troubles
of
Absinthe
BY
J.
FANNING
O'REILLY
Associate
Editor
"
The
Steward
"
New
York
People
on
this
side
of
the
Atlantic
Océan
find
it
hard
to
understand
the
crnsade
tliat
bas
been
waged
in
Europe
against
the
manufacture
and
sale of
Ab-
sinthe,
most
likely
because,
in
the
United
States,
the
article
is
only
consuined
in
a
moderate
way,
by
rea-
son
of
its
tonic
and
rejuvenating
effect
on
Systems
that
are
run
down,
tired,
or
that
need
a
wholesome
stimulant.
The
opposition
which
arose
against
the
beverage
in
France
and
Switzerland
within
the
past
five
years
is
generally
regarded
as
being
résultant
from
the old
trouble
of
abuse
as
against
rational
use.
The
countries
mentioned
have
in
the
past
been
among
the
largest
distillers
of
the
tonic,
and,
strange
to
say,
it
is
mainly
within
their
confines
that
there
is
any
protest
of
conséquence
against
the
article,
which,
beyond
doubt,
has
been
"more
sinned
against
than
sinning,"
on
account
of
much
that
has been
writ-
ten
against
it
in
prose
and
poetry.
The
pace
was
set
in
this
respect
by
Marie
Corelli's
highly
sensational
and
wierd
romance
entitled
"Worinwood."
Since
that
unsavory
pièce
of
literature,
with
its
fantastic
and
wildly
imaginative
pictures
of
the
mental
and
physical
conditions
generally
following
the
use,
and,
of
course,
the
abuse,
of
Absinthe,
first
saw
the
light,
ail
kinds
of
writers
have
toyed
with
it,
and
with
about
the
same
degree
of
iividity
and
unction
that
a
playwright
takes
up
the
subjects
of
love
or
matrimony,
whereby
to
bring
forward
some
newly
dis-
covered
phase
of
an
old
subject.
Ail
this
sort
of
thing
has
sure
enough
hurt
the
manufacture,
sale
and
consumption
of
as
hon-
cst
and
well-meaning
a
product
as
was
ever
distilled.
It
sur-
vives
much
abuse,
although
many
an
ink-slinger
has
proclaimed
its
epitaph.
It
is
no
purpose
of
this
writer
to
either
eulogize
or
to
condemn,
but
simply
to
freshen
the
mind
of
the
reader
concerning
an
article
in
the
wine
and
spirit
trade
that
may
be
truthfully
said
to
have
had
a
chequered
history,
and
presented
as
much
opportunity
for
the
use
of
printers'
ink
as
almost
any-
thing
on,
at
least,
the
list
of
modem
beverages.
I
say
modem,
because
I
believe
the
first
reliable
data
we
have
concerning
Ab-
sinthe
goes
back
no
further
than
to
the
time
of
the
campaigns
following
the
death
of
Napoléon
1.,
when
French
soldiers
came
across the
wormwood
herb
in
Algiers
(
1832-47
)
,
and
there
and
then
discovered
its
tonic
and
aromatic
effects,
when
they
much
needed
something
to
restore
their
shattered
health.
As
to
the
history
of
the
herb
wormwood
of
itself,
one